The dividend-reset date of the Preference Shares A is January 1, 2006. Heijmans has reached an agreement in principal with the holders of these shares regarding the early cancellation, which is expected to take place on July 1, 2005. The cancellation is an agenda item in the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, which needs to approve the cancellation.
The cancellation of the Preference Shares A and the already successful issue of certificates of new ordinary shares will strengthen and simplify the capital structure of the company. Besides that, it will bring Heijmans' principle back in-line that, there is a balance between voting rights and the capital contribution per share. With the latter Heijmans also complies with the recommendations as formulated in the Corporate Governance Code.
Heijmans has also approximately EUR 66 million of cumulative financing preference shares B outstanding with a dividend of 6.81%. These shares have a dividend-reset date of January 1, 2009. At this moment, Heijmans has no intention for early cancellation of these shares.
Taking into account this transaction and the successful issue of 1,635,000 certificates of new ordinary shares, Heijmans expects that the net profit per ordinary share will be approximately EUR 3.40 in 2005. This is in line with Heijmans' expectation that was communicated earlier, of an increase of over 10% in net profit for 2005 under IFRS. When maintaining the dividend policy, this implies a dividend of approximately EUR 1.36 per ordinary share for 2005 (over EUR 1.22 in 2004).